HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – A car traveling south on Warburton Avenue struck and killed a worker for RiverView Catering when it crashed through fence and continued over an 80-foot embankment.

Mario Moreno, a 39-year-old handyman from the Bronx who had worked for the RiverView for 15 years, was blowing leaves from a patio area near the roadway in preparation for a Friday night party at the catering hall when he was struck. He was pronounced dead at St. John's Hospital.

Moreno's girlfriend, Mari Rosario, with whom he has lived for several years, appeared on CBS-TV news late Friday night and confirmed that she was pregnant with their first child. She said she would be sending Moreno's body back to his native Mexico for burial.

The driver of the car got out safely and followed a pathway back up the embankment, said an emergency worker at the scene. The accident happened shortly before 3 p.m. Friday just north of The RiverView catering hall.

The car, a Ford SUV, crashed through the catering hall's fence leaving a hole about 30 foot wide, before it went over the embankment.

John Antunovic, a recovery driver for Ardsley's Giampiccolo Towing, was called in by Hastings Police to prepare to removed the car that ended up just above the Metro-North Railroad track below the RiverView.

"It's hard to believe the driver could walk away from that," Antunovic said. "The car is on a flat surface but at least 80 feet down and there are a couple of terraces on the way down, so we'll have to lift the car and bring it out. We'll wait until the investigation is done and then get to work."

Warburton Avenue was closed to traffic north of Odell Avenue and south of the Hastings-on-Hudson line. A Hastings police officer said the road would be closed for at least six hours while the investigation is conducted. Expect delays on the Bee-Line buses that travel Warburton Avenue.